South Australia is at the forefront of sustainable agriculture this month, with the official opening of a tomato farm in Port Augusta. It's not just any tomato farm. Sundrop Farms is a hydroponic greenhouse facility that doesn't use fossil fuels, groundwater, pesticides or soil. The $200 million, 20-hectare farm doesn't even take up valuable arable land. It's located on arid, degraded land that is too barren for traditional agriculture.
Here's how it works. A solar tower standing 115 metres (377 feet) high with 23,000 mirrors pointed at it provides all the power the farm requires, for heating and cooling. It also powers a desalination plant, which converts seawater into freshwater to keep the plants irrigated.
If it works, there is a lot of "arid, degraded land that is too barren for traditional agriculture" in Nevada and eastern California that could be used the same way.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 12 2016, @04:16PM
Sun they have. Why they built vertically isn't clear - what's wrong with putting the greenhouses at ground level? But fine, whatever. You couldn't pack systems like this densely anyhow because they'd shade each other all the time. Water they have by desalination, so that's taken care of.
Now, what about nutrients? Are they ... trucking them in? Refining them from petrochemicals, or by using petrochemical sources of energy?
The article doesn't tell us. The summary doesn't even hint.
Huge, vitally important, unanswered questions here.